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titleAre you an emotional hoarder?

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captionTEXT JESSICA MARTIN. PHOTOGRAPHY TESH/ TRUNKARCHIVE. COM/ SNAPPER MEDIA. POSED FOR BY MODEL IN NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH THIS STORY. If the contents of your brain makes the peeps on TV show Hoarders look like amateurs, it’s time for a clean-out. If you thought her surroundings were a mess, you should see inside her head. EMOTIONAL are you an cl0213FE-HoarderP58.pdf Page 58 20/12/2012, 1:31:44 PM

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captionif you’re still rehashing episodes from years ago, your thoughts are most likely corrupting other areas of your life. 59 TEXT JESSICA MARTIN. PHOTOGRAPHY TESH/ TRUNKARCHIVE. COM/ SNAPPER MEDIA. POSED FOR BY MODEL IN NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH THIS STORY. cleo.com.au L izzie, 25, can recall the moment she realised she needed to give her brain a spring-clean. “I was on the phone to my best friend, going over my feelings of anger and regret about my ex-boyfriend. I’d thrashed it out with her plenty of times before, but this time she got mad and said that she couldn’t listen to me go on about him any longer. I was a bit gobsmacked,” she admits. If Lizzie’s friend sounds harsh, factor in this nugget of information: Lizzie broke up with her boyfriend two years ago and conversations like the one she describes were an all-too-common occurrence. When it came to her ex, Lizzie was an emotional hoarder. “At fi rst I was angry at my friend,” Lizzie says. “But after I’d thought about it properly, I realised I was probably holding onto my past relationship a little too tightly.” GOING LOOPY Whether it’s your ex, your less-than-ideal childhood, the promotion you missed out on or another life fart cluttering up your brain, the likelihood you’re holding onto some negative crap from the past is fairly high. Some things really do suck a big garlic-fl avoured lollipop and it’s fi ne to feel ripped o by the world when horrible stu happens. But if you’re playing those events over and over in your brain, like a sick tune on repeat, fantasising about the way you should have acted or what you could have said, you’re only doing yourself harm. Experts call this brain loop ‘ruminating’. Registered psychologist Paula Robinson (positivepsychology institute.com.au) says that when our minds are always rehashing and recapping the past, our thoughts become narrowed. “In this stat